If Wavves had a sister band. It would be indie pop trio Best Coast. Surf rock guitars, garage rock drums and indie pop vocals make up Best Coast and even correspond with Wavves' heavily distorted surf rock 2010 third album King of the Beach. Best Coast comes obviously straight out of Los Angeles, Cali. with their debut Crazy For You. Gaining attention from their lead single "Boyfriend", Best Coast's lo-fi, fuzzy sound attracted much attention to the surf pop indie genre.
When talking with Pitchfork, frontwomen Bethany Cosentino said that Crazy For You was "about weed and my cat being lazy a lot", well that's a pretty generic topic to expand upon. Thankfully, Crazy For You isn't just a monotone on over obsessions of Cosentino's famous cat Snacks and crazy weed stories. Beat Coast main theme is relationships and love. Cosentino talks a lot in first person about meeting guys, failed relationships and so many other young adult California activities. It could all be annoying, but you can't help but smile along with Cosentino and feel her pain in her mislead relationships and lazy cat.
Before, I described Best Coast has having a lo-fi sound, you could say that for the guitar, bass and drums, but Cosentino's voice is quite clear and is exceptionally catchy. The use of very clear and near perfect vocals clashing with lo-fi sounding instruments makes for a unique set, but it really makes you focus on the vocals the most which can get a bit monotonous. Cosentino never really seems to stop singing. The primary focus of Best Coast is Cosentino. Her vocals are very dreamy and sound great, but a little more balance with the instruments is greatly needed.
Crazy For You also peaks at the wrong time. That's on the opener "Boyfriend", the most strong and catchy song. The songs after "Boyfriend" all seem to decline down to boring surf pop drone. The worst of these songs is "Honey", a very mellow bass deep song that goes on far to long for a surf pop song. Best Coast sounds like they lost ideas for their songs and just slopped together some very shallow pop songs like "Happy" and "Bratty B" that have no depth and charteristic to them as compared to "Boyfriend" and "Crazy For You".
Despite those gripes, Crazy For You is a really fresh summer album that is perfect for a day at the pool or beach. Best Coast can really appeal to a more wide range of pop music listeners that are trying to enjoy some indie culture. I don't see Best Coast being the most interesting indie poppers, but really it's all innocent fun to have a refreshing summer surf pop album.
Overall: 7.6/10
Track Listing:
1. Boyfriend - 9.0
2. Crazy For You - 8.5
3. The End - 8.0
4. Goodbye - 7.5
5. Summer Mood - 8.0
6. Our Deal - 8.0
7. I Want To - 7.0
8. When the Sun Don't Shine - 8.0
9. Bratty B - 7.5
10. Honey - 6.5
11. Happy - 7.0
12. Each and Ever Day - 7.0
Bonus Track: When I'm With You - 7.5
Sample:
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